Brown Rice in Diabetic Diet

Natural benefits can often be found in common foods, making wonderful additions to any diet, particularly those required by people suffering illnesses or at high risk for disease. One of these foods is brown rice, an excellent source of fibre and a natural preventative aid against type 2 diabetes.

Recent studies have shown that even those at high risk of type 2 diabetes can greatly reduce their likelihood of developing the disease simply by replacing white rice with its brown alternative in an average diet. Given the high rates of type 2 diabetes in the United States today – more than 18 million people suffer from the disease – that comes as excellent news for those who may be at risk due to obesity and other factors.

The research shows specifically that the addition of 50 grams of brown rice per week into any diet has very positive effects, lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes by 18 percent. Replacing white rice with other whole grains, such as wheat and barley, also promises great benefit.

The healthy aspects of brown rice are unique to that variety because they are stripped entirely from white rice by manufacturers, removing all of the bran and germ content of the rice that proves so vital to the human body, often leaving people with high-risk factors especially prone to disease. Because white rice has become so readily available in easily consumed formats such as “Minute Rice,” many modern Western diets are bereft of the whole grains that our bodies need to keep us healthy.

Unlike so many things in life, adding brown rice to your diet should be a relatively easy change and, whether you find yourself at special risk for developing type 2 diabetes or not, a worthwhile one, as well.